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Arsenal team-mates to blame for Ozil’s poor form – Ferdinand

Mesut Ozil is an “easy scapegoat” and his “team-mates are to blame” for the German’s poor performances at Arsenal, according to Rio Ferdinand.

Reports on Tuesday morning said that some players were angry because of Ozil’s lack of effort and his preferential treatment by Arsene Wenger.

Now Ferdinand has claimed that the other players should be held accountable for the German’s poor form, writing in the Evening Standard: ‘Mesut Ozil has become an easy scapegoat when things are going wrong at Arsenal. It’s not fair and it’s not right.

‘There will be a lot of scrutiny on the midfielder when he returns to Germany with Arsenal to face Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Champions League tomorrow night.

‘It’s true that he has gone off the boil of late and Arsenal do need him to step up in what is an enormous game but, barring Alexis Sanchez, you could say the same about all of the players.

‘It’s easy to blame Ozil because he has a languid style. For his game to prosper, he needs other people to be constantly running and moving for him, to provide a target. Recently there hasn’t been enough of that going on. He is not the type of player to do it all on his own. He needs his team-mates to help his game come on.

‘People always question the German international’s record in the big games, but what is Arsenal’s record like in the big games? If they were sitting high in that mini League of matches between the top-six Premier League clubs and he hadn’t scored or made assists, then that would back up the argument.

‘But apart from the Chelsea match in September, none of them has played well in those games, so to pick Ozil out is unjust. Arsenal should give him a new contract — they need top-class players and he is one of them.’